Favourite Books

Shark is a story about the dispossessed and how they get by. Ex-soldier and violent deadbeat John Usher returns to his boyhood home of Leeds to find things have changed. His community has been unravelled by gang culture, ethnic tensions and hopelessness. Unable to sleep, his only consolation is drinking late into the night and playing pool by himself. That is, until an encounter with a hard right activist leads him into a twisted relationship of deceit, cuckoldry and hatred. Read Why I Like It

This is an anthology of poems written by various female authors all over the world from old to contemporary. The book has over 250 poems, written on various themes such as identity, love, family, religion, childhood and more. The chronology of poems are organised according to these themes. Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Carol Ann Duffy, Alive Oswald, Jenny Joseph and Lucille Clifton feature alongside many, many other authors.
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Noughts and Crosses is the first of four novels set in a racial dystopia.
Sephy Hadley is a Cross. Deemed higher in society because of her dark skin.
Callum McGregor is a Nought. A nothing because of his light skin.
The pair now have to fight for their friendship as the true extent of their differences are made clear.
Progress seems to have been made. Then the bomb goes off, changing Sephy and Callum's lives forever.Read Why I Like It

The Catcher in the Rye is often described as the great American novel. It follows the musings of Holden Caulfield, a teenager riddled with issues and humorous observations, his misinterpretation of Burns’ Comin’ Through the Rye and his relationship with his sister over a specific two days. The book is popular among young adults due to its ideas of identity and belonging, as well as losing a younger sibling and other difficult subjects.Read Why I Like It

John Updike recorded postwar small town America through the eyes of former high school basketball star and general low-life Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom. The four novels - each written in present tense at the end of a decade - follow the inner life of the American everyman. Read Why I Like It

This book, Faulkner's grave meditation on race, violence and all the fraught legacies of the South, is the first in which he confronted head-on the poisons of racism. Joe Christmas believes himself to be of mixed race. He has escaped from a miserable childhood to the town of Jefferson, Mississippi, where he unleashes his demons. Lena Grove has come there, too, looking for the father of the child she is carrying while Christmas fulfills his wretched destiny. Read Why I Like It